He's spent a few nights in his double-sized mattress that has sat on the floor of his room for a couple months. But today, after arriving home from a full day of work, we finally took the crib siding off and put on his guard rail (which, by the way, is ridiculously small compared to how much this child moves in his sleep and I am not holding high hopes of it keeping him in bed...)

We had a bit of a hard choice. Take it off 15 minutes before bedtime and get four nights of "Mommy doesn't have to be rested the next day" sleeps with the new bed, or wait until the morning to change it and give him some more time to play and get used to it. We decided on the first option.

He was actually pretty good about climbing into bed. I had a brief moment where I thought to myself "Hey, this is going to be a walk in the park. Look, he's laying down. Okay, let's say goodnight and, as per usual, not see him until the morning!" Nope. Moments after walking out and closing his gate, he was at the doorway chatting away.

So I went in, brought him back to bed. I sang him a song. Gave him a kiss. And then walked away. Then he was at the gate again. So back I went. And again. I gave in and went in with him, laid him down and recited a few of his favourite stories, sans book, to settle him. I decided tonight was going to be a write off and sat beside his bed, reminding him to lay down, to sleep, to close his eyes and to not throw his panda out of bed.

Would I say it was simple? No. Was it quick? No. Am I looking forward to when he wakes in the middle of the night? Nope.

But I enjoyed sitting beside him, watching him go from wide awake and curious about the world to drowsy. (Could have done without the rage and the tears and the attempted escapes, but I will take it as part of the package!)

Apparently big beds are hard work because he was very thirsty from all his effort. He drank two full sippy cups of water and wanted more (I told him no because I am an awful mother and don't want him soaking his diaper, his PJs and himself and waking early in the morning and not going back to sleep) He tried dancing and sneaking out of bed. He even tried running and bailing over the tiny railing to escape. But he eventually settled and slowly drifted off. I was excited for my cue to exit so I started sneaking away, only to make it half a foot before he was standing up and smiling at me... Fooled by a 17 month old! GAH!

After an hour and a half of sitting with him (and nearly three hours after bedtime normally happens!) he was asleep. He tightly snuggled panda and was looking very cozy in his crib-turned-toddler-bed.

I just have to remind myself how cute and peaceful he looks while sleeping at 2am when he wakes and refuses to go back to bed for an hour...And pray that the (in theory) four naps and three more nights of sleeping in there will go back to the quick and easy goodnights! Otherwise we're going to have a very moody mom and toddler around here!

What was your biggest challenge of moving your little one to a big boy bed?

We've had a few successful nights in his BIG big boy bed (double mattress on the floor) but he seems to favour his crib so we wanted him to have the familiarity of the crib.